1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sanitary article, particularly a sanitary fitting or a plumbing fitting, having a coated surface. The invention also relates to a process for applying a surface coating to a sanitary article.
2. Background
Sanitary fittings and plumbing fittings are normally made from metals such as e.g. brass and for corrosion protection purposes have a surface chromium plating. The chromium plating leads to a uniform, silver-colored, smooth surface and therefore also has a decorative effect. Over the last few years the trend in the sanitary sector has increasingly been towards colored fittings. Therefore processes have been developed for giving a colored coating to sanitary articles, e.g. by varnishing, lacquering, electrolyte or powder coating. It is known to carry out coating with a powder varnish based on thermosetting plastics, which harden or cure at elevated temperatures. However, this only leads to few possibilities for decorative and in particular multicolor designs. There are also problems when combining the colored coating with metallic decors, such as e.g. gold decors, so that the manufacturing process is made more complicated and expensive. There is also a need for sanitary articles, which both for ornamental and informative purposes can be provided with permanent, pictorial representations or inscriptions.
The problem of the present invention is therefore to make available a sanitary article having a coated surface which, in addition to the protection function, can also fulfill decorative and informative functions, whilst also being simple and inexpensive to manufacture.